The American people have spoken. Are YOU listening?

Four years ago I personally witnessed what I considered the most important political event of my lifetime. The event I am referring to was a significant historic moment of great magnitude. Not unlike millions of Americans, I never thought I would see the day when a Black man would be elected President of the United States in my lifetime. I firmly believed that it would take a special set of circumstances for it to happen and take an extraordinary man to accomplish that feat. As fate would have it, the country was in the midst of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression in addition to fighting in two very unpopular wars halfway around the world. I guess in retrospect I think the American people felt that things could probably not get any worse so why not give “The Brother” a shot at turning this mess of a country around. Four years later and in the initial stages of a second term, President Barack Obama has proved to be just the right man for the job of President of these United States.

For many idealists such as me the election of our nation’s 44th President symbolized that this country finally had been transformed for the better. Millions of Americans sensed that “The Dream” that the late Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. had so eloquently referenced years earlier had been fulfilled; that somehow the change which was going to come which was referred to in the words of a song sung by the legendary singer Sam Cooke, had finally arrived.

Some of us even dared to believe that this historical occasion signaled that our nation was finally on the verge of a “New America,” one where all me were truly created equal. Un-fortunately, however some Americans were still not willing to except the outcome of the Presidential Election in 2008. Not everyone was on board with moving the country forward and not everybody was down with the progressive direction that President Obama wanted to lead the country. The GOP opted rather to embrace a national agenda whose primary objective was to make sure that “President Barack Obama would be a One Term President.” What would ensue over the next four years? The country would be held hostage by the GOP which drafted a domestic policy based on obstruction and by-partisan politics on Capitol Hill.

Amazingly, President Obama was able to achieve several major accomplishments during his first term in office, not the least of which was to save the country from the brink of economic destruction while repairing a broken healthcare system by successfully getting The Affordable Healthcare Act, signed into law. He also implemented measures which pre-vented the automotive industry from collapsing. The President was equally successful in the implementation of a foreign policy which saw an end to the war in Iraq, the scheduled end to U.S. troops in Afghanistan by 2014 and taking out the No. 1 terrorist in the world, Osama Bin Laden.

President Barack Obama did everything in his power to work with the Re-publicans in Congress to pass additional legislation designed to bring more jobs to the American people. Those feelings of optimism however appeared to have been rather naïve in the wake of “The Tea Party, Congressional gridlock, and most recently, evidence of Voter Suppression throughout our nation during the months leading up to the general election. Fast for-ward to the general elections of 2012 which were characterized by attempts by the GOP to suppress the votes of millions of eligible voters in America.

An election where a record number of money was spent to sway the political conscience of the American electorate by political action committees known as Super PACs. Election Day which saw voters waiting lines upwards of four, five, and sometimes six hours in order to exercise their constitutional right to vote? In the end the American people were able to rise above it all to make it clear the direction that they wanted the country to go under the leadership of President Barack Obama. The rallying cry of Obama supporters of “four more years,” and letting their voices be heard at the ballot box now means that the country can look forward to the future and not return to the failed domestic and foreign policies which plagued this country during Republican presidential administrations of George W. Bush the previous eight years.

On November 6, 2012 the American people re-elected President Barack Obama. Their statement was loud and clear; “it is time to move this country FORWARD.” Memo to the GOP- the American people have spoken. Are YOU listening?